Yet another terrific article by Melonie Dodaro. Six smart things to do to create an on-line presence that conveys professionalism and positions you as a leader within your industry.

In this day and age, hardly a business transaction goes by without the buyer googling the potential service provider. What they see will have a direct impact on weather they choose to do business with you.

Weather you are in sales or are an engineer, an important part of your career trajectory is always going to include meeting new people. Becoming aware of very specific behaviors that emotionally intelligent people consistently do within the first 5 minutes of meeting someone, can make a tremendous difference on weather a new contact walks away from you with a positive, or negative first impression.

I recently posted an article on the BEST email ‘sign offs’ and received a slew of other suggestions, which unfortunately were examples of what NOT to close your correspondence with. I then came across this short read, which highlights some of these bad choices, & most importantly, tells us WHY they are not what you want to end your note with, if the goal is to move the discussion forward.

Research shows that the final line is the most memorable element of the entire message. Knowing that, isn’t it important to really give some thought to what you are going to leave as a lasting impression?

ISC has been a leader in executive search since 1999. Please give us a call for all of your executive recruiting needs.

Most of us stop reading after the last full sentence in an email. After all, the majority of people sign off with “Best,” “Thanks,” “Sincerely,” or something similarly boring — and there’s no point reading this a million times:

Thanks,

Aja

However, the ubiquity of boring email sign offs is actually a great opportunity for sales reps. Closing with something memorable and personalized won’t just make you stand out — it’ll also give you one last chance to connect with your prospect.

With busy executives receiving hundreds of emails per day, from people wanting to sell them something, you want to make sure that every single line counts.

Why end your note with the exact same ‘sign -off’ that everyone else uses, when with a little thought, you can use that last line to show that you are different, and indeed BETTER, than everyone else that is vying for your prospects attention?

Choosing sales as a career is choosing to dive into an incredibly competitive arena, where you should constantly be thinking of how to improve your game, in order to stand out from the rest of the pack.

Since 1999, ISC has been ranked as one of the top executive search firms for sales recruiters.

For all of your sales hiring needs, please feel free to reach out to ISC for the opportunity to have top performing sales professionals delivered to your interview table.

Salespeople entice prospects to book meetings with them based on their words, either spoken or written. With this in mind, word choice is incredibly important to be effective in sales. While an emotionally charged phrase might compel a prospect to sign the contract, an off-putting word could kill the opportunity.

Like most business owners, I receive dozens of sales calls per week, and a solid 99% use one of these 5 phrases as an intro to the call. Most every salesperson I come into contact with is guilty of using one of these words or phrases if not more on a consistent basis. Becoming cognizant of the negative effects these commonly used phrases have on your ultimate goal of engaging your potential client, and then practicing the alternatives listed below, should dramatically increase the response rate with prospects — not to mention, your sales.

We get it, finding a mentor can be difficult and time-consuming. But when you do find one (or two), they can save you from making costly mistakes that can set you back in your career. Simply put, having a mentor will improve the quality of your decisions and provide opportunities that won’t be available to you otherwise.

We all know the truth behind the saying ‘If I Knew Then What I Know Now“. Building upon that philosophy, nurturing mentoring relationships in your professional life, can help you immeasurably in your quest to achieve specific professional goals. The key of reciprocity is never stronger , than in establishing mentoring relationships in business. Be cognizant of building relationships with someone that can help you advance your skills in certain areas, and equally important, always be open to returning that gift in imparting your wisdom to someone else. After being in the recruiting world for a quarter of a century now, I always enjoy sharing some of my painful lessons with others to spare them the pain while imparting the lessons, and in turn have gained immeasurably in learning shortcuts and how to use some of the amazing tools that are now available from some of the technically savvy mentees that I have mentored. Being mindful of building relationships with people that are on the same career path as you, and being cognizant of how you can help each other, can result in tremendous benefits from both parties.

One of the keys to effective influencer marketing (aka getting real results) is by doing it authentically.

But just what does that mean?

Being authentic in your influencer marketing efforts means investing the time to learn as much as you can about each influencer you want to reach out to and then communicate with them in a personalized manner that works to establish and then build a real relationship with that person.

When targeting a new company as a potential client, conventional wisdom dictates that you start your efforts as far up the food chain as possible. Considering that each step up the corporate ladder virtually ensures that that person is receiving more communications than the person below them, resulting in being bombarded with vm’s, and emails on a daily if not hourly basis, means that you have to be extremely smart in creating a message that will resonate with those key influencers and grab their attention. In this article Melonie Dodaro does a terrific job in highlighting the 7 best strategies in deciphering what will be most effective in grabbing your targeted prospects attention, and how best to deliver that message.

In terms of sales techniques, there is a lot of “conventional wisdom” out there that, in reality, doesn’t help you make the sale. Here are five of the best sales techniques that really work, as well as five classic go-to selling techniques that may, in fact, be hurting your sales efforts.

Today’s buyers have dramatically changed from decision makers from even 15 years ago, and to effectively sell to them, sales professionals need to change the way they approach decision makers. It amazes me how many veteran sales professionals are still attempting to influence buyers with methods that may have worked ‘back in the day’ but are woefully inadequate in today’s market. #salestechniques

Check out this terrific source of 23 excellent follow-up sales email templates. Not all of your prospects will have the same pain points and not all will respond to the same things, so by learning about different messaging options, you can become savvy in customizing your messaging based on your intended audience. Educating yourself on different lead approaches, from the ‘ask’ method to the ‘selling’ method, should result in increased response rates and ultimately, increased sales.

Over the last decade there has been a huge increase in evidence that emotional intelligence is an important factor in leadership. Numerous studies have shown a positive relationship between emotional intelligent leadership and employee satisfaction, retention and performance. While emotional intelligence has made enormous progress in being accepted by organizations, there is still a ways to go. Many corporate leaders still see it as a “Soft Skill” of lesser importance than highly valued technical skills and business acumen. However research has shown that the opposite is true. Emotional Intelligence has been shown to increase creativity and the awareness of how to more effectively use and leverage technical skills. Instead of being relegated to a secondary skill level, emotional intelligence is increasingly being recognized at all levels as being of primary importance. As organizations become more aware of this they are looking for ways to recruit and promote from within people that are strong in emotional intelligence.

Human behaviorists have been doing some fascinating research into the power of Emotional Intelligence as well as the importance of Body Language. Being cognizant of these ‘soft skills’ and how they impact leadership skills can make a tremendous impact. Harvey Deutschendorf is an emotional intelligence expert, internationally published author and speaker. Curious what your own EI is? To take the EI Quiz go to theotherkindofsmart.com.

Yet another terrific article from Melonie Dodaro. Establishing yourself as a thought leader within your area of expertise, and consistently sharing well researched information to your targeted audience has proven to be the most effective way to gain market share.

No hiring manager likes to be surprised when someone turns in their resignation. Here are 13 ‘tells’ that if you are paying attention, will give you a strong indicator that you should be start looking to back-fill an employee.

Fascinating snapshot into the daily life of one of today’s most successful entrepreneurs. Check this article out to learn how Elon Musk manages to get in 82 PRODUCTIVE work hours per week, evenly split between his 2 full time jobs. Some of his habits may surprise you, as they are in direct contradiction to the way that most of us work.

Research tells us that happier people are more successful. But when it feels like there are a million roles to fill and little hiring budget, it can be hard to feel happy all the time. However, according to happiness guru Chade-Meng Tan, affectionately called “Meng,” 24/7 happiness is possible – it just requires a little brain training.

Creating ‘habit loops”, training your thought processes to repeatedly go over the same thought patterns has been scientifically shown to create inroads in the brain that results in either a positive or negative feelings, depending on what those thoughts are, so ‘think’ wisely! Read more from Google’s director of job satisfaction, Chade-Meng Tan, on easy to implement things that you can do on a daily basis that will result in higher job satisfaction and ultimately more joy in your daily life.